Scottsdale existing-home sales soar

Existing-home sales in Scottsdale jumped 36 percent in the first half of this year, and home construction picked up slightly from its glacial pace.

Housing-industry observers remain cautious about where the market is headed because prices have not stabilized and foreclosures accounted for a quarter of the 3,215 homes sold in Scottsdale through June, according to Arizona State University Realty Studies reports.

"I see a very definite pent-up demand for things, people wanting to buy," said real-estate agent Bob Morris of John Hall and Associates. "There's still hesitancy to buy in the marketplace, some fear and hesitancy."

Foreclosures and short sales continue to put downward pressure on prices.

Scottsdale's median-home price in June was $378,600, up less than 1 percent from a year earlier. But it was the first year-over-year monthly increase during the first half of 2010. The Valley median price in June was $147,500.

New homes are just a fraction of the Scottsdale housing market. The city has issued 100 single-family building permits from Jan. 1 through July 27, and is on pace for about 171 new homes in 2010. Last year, Scottsdale approved just 130 home permits, down from 3,100 a decade earlier.

Pulte Homes and Lennar are building a total of 790 homes at Lone Mountain just west of Scottsdale Road. Most of the new-home permits are going to custom- and green-home builders, said Michael Clack, Scottsdale's director of development services.

Windgate Ranch, one of the city's only large subdivisions, has several homes under construction, said Linda Rossi, Toll Brothers Southwest region marketing director.

Toll Brothers has completed 237 of 633 planned homes since it started sales in March 2006 at the subdivision northwest of Bell Road and Thompson Peak Parkway. Prices start at about $500,000 for a 2,750-square-foot home, Rossi said.

However, the upper limit for conventional loans in Maricopa County is $417,000.

"Homes in north Scottsdale keep dropping in price until they get under that number," said Jay Butler, ASU Realty Studies associate professor.

However, buyers are still showing that they want to live in Scottsdale, he said.

"The idea is if you want to live in a particular area, now is the time to do it," Butler added. "Prices have dropped so much."

Butler's ASU colleague, real-estate professor Karl Guntermann, in his repeat-sales index, reports that Scottsdale's home prices fell 36 percent from April 2006 to this past April.